JUST like any paradise beach that lures tired bodies and souls to soak in its
waters and bask in its sands, there is a narrative that is conveniently hidden
behind the poster-perfect scenery of Boracay.

And it is one that is written in the narrative of blood and money.

In
February 22, 2013, a 26-year-old Ati youth leader named Dexter Condez was
brutally murdered, shot six times by an unknown assailant as he was walking
with two female companions after attending a meeting. Condez was the spokesman
of the Boracay Ati Tribal Organization (BATO). As such, he was at the forefront
of the Ati struggle to assert their ancestral rights over their land. The
National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), as supported by
anthropological studies, has established that the entire Boracay Island is the
ancestral domain of the Atis in that they were its earliest settlers. In fact,
the island’s name is in their language.

But like
the fate of many indigenous peoples, the Atis were displaced and forced to
retreat into the forested areas of the island when tourism investors began to
descend on Boracay in the 1970s. But before that, local peoples from the Panay
mainland began occupying parts of the island and later were able to secure land
titles over what used to be legally considered as common property, and
historically should have been considered as Ati ancestral lands.

A
competing narrative is used by these local migrants to negate the ancestral
domain claims of the Atis. They argue that the latter are also from the Panay
mainland and only go to the island to forage during certain seasons. However,
this is a weak argument since it only affirms the characteristic nature of Atis
as nomadic tribes, and it even strengthens their claims not only on Boracay but
even on those other areas mentioned. After all, the festival that has become a
symbolic representation of the culture of Panay is named after the Atis, and
historical accounts validate the claim that they were the very first people
encountered by the Spanish colonizers there.

But the
Atis were not even fighting for the entire island anymore, more so the entire
Panay mainland, but only for a piece of land, some 2.1 hectares, which was
awarded to them by the Philippine government in 2011 and for which a
Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) was issued. However, this was
contested by local migrants who claimed that they hold land titles over the
area covered by the CADT issued by the government.

Until
today, the murder of Condez has yet to be finally resolved even as a suspect, a
security guard working for a major hotel in the island, was arrested in 2014.
Still to be clearly established is the motive behind the murder. Friends of
Condez, including the nuns who were helping the Atis, said that he had no
personal enemies, and that the only issue in which he was involved was the land
dispute over the CADT.

As of
today, the Atis remaining in the island, now estimated to be around just 20
families, have yet to occupy the land awarded to them. They are now confined in
an enclosed complex called the Ati Village, which is in fact a former dumpsite.
Fenced-in, isolated from the entire island, but still linked to it as a tourist
attraction, the original settlers were symbolically dumped there. While some
can consider the fact that the Atis are now living in more convenient houses,
and no longer foraging, hunting and gathering like they used to, as evidence of
development, others see this as a pathetic image of how the original settlers
of the island have been reduced to, becoming an enclosed and controlled
spectacle, disoriented and uprooted from their culture.

Now, their
ancestral lands from where the Atis have been alienated, with its white sand
beaches and pristine waters, and which developed in leaps and bounds to become
a prime tourist attraction, have literally turned into a dumpsite for
uncontrolled and unregulated development. A rough estimate reveals that more
than half of the island’s establishments are not connected to the island’s
sewerage system, even as they do not have their own to show. A significant
number of these establishments are unregulated, and operate under the radar, if
not with the tacit consent of the local government which has continued to issue
building permits even in the absence of environmental clearances from the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Environment Secretary
Roy Cimatu, during an onsite inspection visit, was reported to have been
shocked at the scale and magnitude of environmental violations in the island.

The lure
of tourism profits is just too much to resist, that even beaches and forests
were encroached into by developers, even as human waste was dumped into the
waters of Boracay, undermining the very resources that the island was
capitalizing on. Ecological Marxists call this the second fundamental
contradiction of capitalism, where the pursuit of profit leads capitalists to
destroy the very physical base of their production.

In the
process, it is not only Condez who suffered physical death. The blood that was
spilled in the sands of Boracay on that fateful evening of February 22, 2013 is
but a physical reminder of the many other deaths that attended this so-called
development. The death of culture and the silencing of indigenous rights is
revealed when the original settlers are now confined, contrary to their very
nature, in a village that used to be a dumpsite. Their ancestral land is now
home to an alien culture that fed on cash but has produced garbage.

But there
is another side to this tragic story unfolding in what otherwise would have
been paradise. In cleaning up the mess, the underbelly of the Boracay economy,
the small-time establishments run by locals, and the migrant labor force that
dominate even the bigger hotels and resorts, may suffer the same fate as that
of the Atis that were displaced by the very economy within which they now exist
and benefit from. (Next: The fate of the local economy and small-scale tourism
industry, and the local migrant labor force)

Indonesian
province considers beheading as murder punishment -Implementation of sharia law has become increasingly harsh in
conservative region of Aceh

A man being caned in public last year after he
was convicted of gay sex. Photograph: Heri Juanda/AP

The
conservative Indonesian province of Aceh, which already carries out public
caning of gay people, adulterers and gamblers, is considering the introduction
of beheading as a punishment for murder, a top Islamic law official has said.

Syukri M
Yusuf, the head of Aceh’s shariah law and human rights office, said the
provincial government had asked his office to research beheading as a method of
execution under Islamic law and to consult public opinion.

“Beheading
is more in line with Islamic law and will cause a deterrent effect. A strict
punishment is made to save human beings,” Yusuf told reporters. “We will begin
to draft the law when our academic research is completed.”

The
public flogging of two gay men and what it says about Indonesia's future

Aceh is the
only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia
to practise shariah law, a concession made by the central government in 2005 to
end a decades-long war for independence.

Its
implementation has become increasingly harsh and also applies to non-Muslims.
Last year, the province for the first time caned two men as punishment for gay sex
after vigilantes broke into their home and handed them over to religious
police.

Yusuf said
if sharia law was consistently applied, then crime, particularly murder, would
decrease significantly or disappear.

He said
punishment for murderers had in practice been “relatively mild” and they could
re-offend after release from prison. He pointed to Saudi Arabia as an example
to follow in carrying out severe punishment for murder.

Indonesia
has the death penalty for crimes such as murder and drug trafficking, which it
carries out by firing squad. Its last executions were in July 2016, when three
Nigerians and one Indonesian convicted of drug offences were shot on the Nusa
Kambangan prison island.

Chinese
President Xi Jinping is now officially the most powerful Chinese leader since
Mao Zedong who died more than 40 years ago after the National People’s Congress
voted overwhelmingly in favour of a constitutional amendment which gives Xi the
right to remain in office indefinitely. Not that there was any doubt about it
but when it finally happened it seemed to be marking another red line in
China’s evolution as the pre-eminent global power of our times.

It was only last month that China’s ruling Communist Party had moved a
proposal to remove a constitutional clause limiting presidential service to
just two terms in office. This is one of the most significant developments in
global politics today given China’s growing heft in the global order.

Xi began his second term as head of the party and military last October
at the end of a once-every-five-years party congress. His real source of
authority emanates from him being the CPC’s General Secretary — a post that has
no term limit — as well as being the head of the powerful Central Military
Commission. His political doctrine, “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with
Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, is now part of the amended
constitution. This takes China back to the good old days of Mao when he was the
supreme leader, deciding on the fate of millions based on his whims and
fancies. Xi’s elevation also marks a significant change in Chinese
political thought. Recognising the dangers of one man rule, Deng Xiaoping got
the limit of two five-year presidential terms written into China’s constitution
in 1982 after Mao’s death. That seems to have been put aside for now.

There have been some isolated critical
voices in China, mostly on social media who have compared their changing
political system to that of North Korea or underlined the dangers of a Mao-type
cult of personality, but mostly there has been support for the move in the name
of protecting the country’s long-term stability. Some have argued that as Xi’s
anti graft movement and his key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are still in
their infancy, and whether such a move was necessary.

But let there be no doubt that this is all about Xi’s ambition. In a
marathon address to the 19th party congress last October, Xi had unveiled his
vision of China’s future of achieving ‘moderate’ prosperity in the next four
years, and emerging as an advanced socialist nation by 2050.

Underlining that China would pursue its own path of developing
“socialism with Chinese characteristics” and inviting “peoples of all countries
to join China’s effort to build a common destiny for mankind and enduring peace
and stability,” he was building a case for the “Beijing Consensus” as an
alternative to the so-called Washington Consensus.

Like the rest of the world, India will also be affected by this change
in manifold ways. New Delhi has no option but to deal pragmatically with
whoever is ruling China, given the enormous stakes in Sino-Indian relations.
Yet at a time when Sino-Indian bilateral ties are passing through one of their
worst times, a centralising figure in China’s governing system will only
complicate matters.

China has always managed to have a consistent strategic approach towards
India — to contain Indian within the confines of South Asia by assisting
Pakistan to balance India. It has refused to recognise New Delhi’s global
aspirations and not budged an inch on key issues pertaining to Indian
interests. But the growing power disparity between India and China as well as
lack of any effective leverage vis-à-vis China has also meant that India has
not been in any position to challenge China.

The Modi government started off promisingly by resetting the terms of
engagement with China. Its principled position on the BRI has been effective in
shaping the global discourse and its effective handling of last year’s Doklam
crisis enhanced its stature. But there is a danger now of slipping back into
the old mode of China policy where a mistaken belief that only if India can
brush aside the hard issues, a semblance of normalcy will return to Sino-Indian
ties.

It is a myth and especially now when Xi who remains unambiguous about
his desire to make China a global superpower and has all the time and resources
at his command to do so. It is highly unlikely that New Delhi can attain a
win-win outcome from Beijing.

Xi’s growing authority will mean that he will double down on his efforts
to militarise the Indian Ocean and expand Chinese influence in South Asia. His
pet project BRI will also see a renewed focus and Indian opposition will rankle
at his ambitious outreach. He will also wait to teach New Delhi a lesson for
what many in China feel was a diplomatic drubbing for Beijing in Doklam. And
this will happen when India goes into election mode and political bickering
will attain new heights.

The Indian political class is yet to learn to speak in one voice in
national security matters. How easy it is to divide the Indian polity was clear
when even at the height of the Doklam crisis, the leaders of India’s main
Opposition party decided to get a briefing from the Chinese Ambassador than its
own government! So as Xi’s power rises to its zenith, there are many reasons to
worry, but mostly it is India’s own ability to get its own house in order which
should concern us the most.